KIDS COUNT says poverty is the biggest challenge to education.

01:00 AM EDT on Wednesday, June 16, 2004

By TATIANA PINA
Journal Staff Writer

While the lives of children in Central Falls and Pawtucket showed some improvement in the areas of education and health care, more of them are living in poverty compared with 10 years ago, according to the latest report from Rhode Island KIDS COUNT.

KIDS COUNT reported the numbers yesterday to community and advocacy leaders at netWORri in Pawtucket during its annual news conference on the state of children in Central Falls and Pawtucket.

From 2000 to 2004, Central Falls showed a dramatic increase in the number of public school kindergarten-age children enrolled in full-day kindergarten, going from 18 percent to 100 percent, according to Kathleen Pannhorst, a policy analyst for KIDS COUNT. Of the 36 school districts in Rhode Island, only 8 offer full-day kindergarten.

Central Falls Schools Supt. Maureen Chevrette said that given the choice of full-day and half-day, all parents have chosen a full day and that it has been beneficial to the children's academic life.

"Academically we've seen a big difference. The work they do is incredible; they can read and write. They are much more advanced socially, more in tune to school," Chevrette said. "Any investment in early childhood education is repaid tenfold down the line."

Pawtucket showed progress in the areas of education and health. Head Start participation in Pawtucket increased significantly between 1994 and 2003, from 12 percent to 32 percent of eligible 3- and 4-year-olds.

Pannhorst said the increase in the number of children in Head Start has come since welfare reform. As more families move from welfare to work, there has been a growing need for comprehensive child care, she said.

She said the percentage of Pawtucket children entering kindergarten with lead poisoning decreased from 20.7 percent in 1998 to 12.0 percent in 2004.

According to the 2000 census, Central Falls has the highest rate of child poverty, at 41 percent, up from 33 percent in 1990.

In Pawtucket, the child poverty rate increased from 16 percent to 25 percent between 1990 and 2000, compared with the state's rate which went from 14 percent to 17 percent.

"Our biggest challenge is poverty. It's not second language learning, it's poverty, poverty, poverty," Chevrette said. Poverty will affect a child's ability to learn, she said.

"Families doubling up in apartments. I'm seeing much more of that than ever before. The number of kids we have that are homeless. With more people living in a household that gives rise to different things like discipline problems. Kids in close quarters can get impatient. They may not have a place to do homework. They may not have a place to read a book at night because there are so many people in the house," she said. "Poverty has definitely increased."

In Central Falls, 80 percent of people younger than 19 had access to health care through public health coverage (medical assistance) in December 2003, which helped them to arrive at school healthy and ready to learn, according to Pannhorst. In Pawtucket, 49 percent of residents younger than 19 receive medical assistance.